A CENSORED MOVIE FROM THE 1920'S IS ONLY PART OF A TRUE CRIME STORY IN DAVID R. STOKES’ NEW BOOK: “JAKE & CLARA: SCANDAL, POLITICS, HOLLYWOOD, AND MURDER.”

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA, December 2, 2015 /EINPresswire.com/ -- It took some big money under the table from “The Oil King of Oklahoma”—a man named Jake Hamon—to break the logjam of more than twenty Republican candidates in 1920 and secure the nomination for Warren G. Harding. And it included a backroom deal to reward the wealthy oilman making him the next Secretary of the Interior—overseeing America’s massive oil reserves. A few weeks after the November election, Jake Hamon was dead in Ardmore, Oklahoma, having been shot by his mistress, an aspiring actress names Clara.
The lady with the gun had fallen in love with the much older married man a decade earlier, when she was just seventeen. Jake seduced her with his megalomaniacal personality, while she developed big dreams of becoming a big Hollywood movie star.
Best-selling author, David R. Stokes, has written the definitive account of the unfolding of the events. “When I first came across this story a few years ago in the course of writing another book, I was surprised that no one had written a full-length book about it. It has been the subject of only occasional magazine articles, but it has never had an in-depth treatment,” Stokes says.
"Jake & Clara" is a true story, written in the style of a novel. “I have taken certain storytelling liberties, including invention of some dialogue. But I have remained faithful to the characters and to the essential drift of events as they really happened. Many nonfiction books that have been adapted to successful films introduce dramatic elements to compliment the facts. Well, I wrote “Jake & Clara” the way I think it would flow on the screen.” he says.
Stokes has partnered with Alexia Melocchi and Alexandra Yacovlef of Production Company Little Studio Films in California on several “book to screen” projects—now including, “Jake & Clara.” There is great interest in Hollywood already in one of Stokes’ previous books, “CAMELOT’S COUSIN,” with award-winning actor Blair Underwood slated to play the lead character.
“Jake & Clara” is a page-turner where vivid characters come to life, from Warren Harding, to his wife, Florence (“The Duchess”), to William Randolph Hearst, to circus impresario John Ringling, to Buck Garrett and Bud Ballew—the two colorful lawmen tasked with finding the suspect murderess bringing to face trial.
As “Clara sightings” were reported far and wide, the media coverage somehow began to turn the fugitive into a celebrity. Following her capture, her train was met on Christmas Day in Ardmore by thousands of cheering fans. And the finest and most famous lawyers in Oklahoma and Texas lobbied for the opportunity to defend her in what was sure to be the trial of the decade.
Soon offers came from Hollywood to make a movie based on her life—starring Clara as herself. That movie, called “FATE,” was indeed produced at Warner Brothers Studio in 1921. But the movie was suppressed by law enforcement agencies soon after its release, and remains as a just curious footnote from the early years of Hollywood.
“Jake & Clara” is now available in e-book ($4.99, Kindle, ePUB, etc.) and paperback ($18.99) formats wherever books are sold.
David R. Stokes is available for interviews throughout December.

Alexia Melocchi
LITTLE STUDIO FILMS
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